Fine Gael Limerick TD, Patrick O’Donovan, has called on the Road Safety Authority to publish statistics of serious injuries caused in car crashes along with their annual road fatality figures. Deputy O’Donovan raised the issue in the Dáil with the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD, who said it is intended to introduce the initiative.
“We have made significant strides in improving road safety in recent years. Road deaths have fallen every year since 2006, and for the fifth year in a row a new record low in fatalities was recorded in 2012. This progress is due in no small part to the campaigns run by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) aimed at educating the public on the consequences of dangerous driving. Now I think it is time to start talking about the life-changing injuries caused by road crashes.
“A serious road accident which does not cause death can still result in destruction, leaving people paralysed or with any number of life-changing injuries. If the RSA, in conjunction with the hospitals, including the National Rehabilitation Hospital, could be encouraged to produce figures on serious injuries on a yearly basis, I think it would help to drive the road safety message home even further.
“Minister Varadkar has said it is intended to implement this measure. With this in mind, he has appointed the head consultant in the National Rehabilitation Hospital to the board of the RSA. The Minister has said it is a complicated situation because, even in medicine, there is not a clear classification of injuries. But he has reassured me that it is something he wants to include in the new road safety strategy, so it is not just about fatalities, but also about life-changing injuries and how they impact on people.
“I also raised the issue of the unrealistic speed limits that are in place on many small regional or tertiary roads around the country. People are driven berserk when they turn off national primary roads onto a small road, sometimes with grass growing down the middle, when the first thing they see is an 80 km/h speed limit sign. The RSA will point out that this is not the desired speed, but the maximum allowable speed.
“While local authorities have the option of examining these speed limits, it is a cumbersome process, it is taking too long and it is doing road users a disservice. The Minister has said this problem is being considered as part of the speed limit review underway. The signs may be replaced with the previous delimiter signs, with the white circle and the grey stripe through it. . I believe that this should be looked at further by the Oireachtas Transport Committee to ensure that the default speed limit for these signs is set at an appropriate level.”